Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued a moving statement on this week’s riots at the US Capitol. The 73-year-old actor took to his Twitter account to post a lengthy video where he called for unity ahead of President-Elect Biden’s turn in office. The pensioner sat in a grand chair in front of an American flag to address his fans following the horrific scenes as a violent and brutal mob stormed the Capitol building in a deadly riot on Wednesday. Five people died during an attempted insurrection when Donald Trump’s supporters tried to overturn the result of the election he lost.
Addressing fans, Arnie said: “As an immigrant to this country, I would like to say a few words to my fellow Americans, and to our friends around the world about the events of recent days." I grew up in Austria, he began.
“I’m very aware of Kristallnacht, or the Night of Broken Glass. It was night of rampage against the Jews carried out in 1938 by the Nazi equivalent of the Proud Boys. Wednesday was the Day of Broken Glass right here in the United States. The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol. But the mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol, they shattered the ideas we took for granted.”
The pensioner sat in a grand chair in front of an American flag to address his fans following the horrific scenes as a violent and brutal mob stormed the Capitol building in a deadly riot on Wednesday
“They did not just break down the doors of the building that housed American democracy; they trampled the very principles on which our country was founded.”
READ MORE
US Congress passes bill to avert shutdown
What happens in a US government shutdown?
White House unveils new climate goals weeks before Trump's return
Democracy on trial globally, let Africa pick lessons and improve
After renouncing the riots, The Terminator star went on to talk about his own upbringing in Austria in the years immediately after WW2 ended.
“I grew up in the ruins of a country that suffered the loss of its democracy. I was born in 1947, two years after the Second World War. Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men drinking away the guilt over their participation in the most evil regime in history. Not all of them were rabid anti-Semites or Nazis, many just went along, step-by-step, down the road. They were the people next-door.”
He explained how his father and neighbours were troubled by what they saw and did in the war and how the same powers which saw them turn a blind eye to the holocaust were in office in the US today. He went on: “It all started with lies, and lies, and lies and intolerance. Being from Europe I have seen firsthand how things can spin out of control. I know there is a fear in this country and all over the world that something like this could happen right here. Now, I do not believe it is, but I do believe that we must be aware of the dire consequences of selfishness and cynicism. President Trump sought to overturn the results of an election and of a fair election. He sought a coup by misleading people with lies. My father and our neighbours were also mislead with lies, and I know where such lies lead.
“President Trump is a failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst president ever. The good thing is he will soon be as irrelevant as an old tweet,” he said of the disgraced president.
“But what are we to make of those elected officials who have enabled his lies and his treachery? I will remind them of what Teddy Roosevelt said, ‘Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president.’
